Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Youngest Gamer to Achieve a Perfect Score on Dance Dance Revolution: Ryota Wada sets world record
HERNDON, VA, USA -- Ryota Wada, 9, attempted to log a perfect score dancing to a particular song, 'Heavy Eurobeat', on a particular setting - expert; he nailed all 223 steps and 16 combinations -
setting the new world record for the Youngest Gamer to Achieve a Perfect Score on Dance Dance Revolution.

"Other kids say DDR is an adult game and it's very hard," he said. "I can do it very well. Why, I don't know. I think maybe because I can catch rhythm easily."

"It is a great honor for him," said Ted Wada, the proud father.

Ryota Wada, 10, was awarded a certificate from Guinness World Records for the feat, and his father, Ted Wada, has proudly displayed it on the mantel at his home in Herndon.

Victor "Lil Poison" De Leon III set a Guinness record several years ago by becoming the world's youngest professional gamer, inking a deal at age 6 to be paid to play the popular first-person "shooter" game Halo.

The Guinness World Record for the Most Prolific video game character was set by Mario, created by Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo, in Kyoto, Japan; Mario has appeared in 207 distinct titles including remakes and re-releases.

Guinness World Records also recognized the largest collection of video games screenshots, which features over 17,000 unique items, achieved by Rikardo Granda (Colombia).

The boy's viral video, "Ryota's Move," was shot in California when he was 5, and his little legs pumped almost spasmodically.

The video turned Ryota, who attends Fox Mill Elementary School, into a minor Internet sensation before he entered first grade.

The popular video game works when a player selects a song, and then touches four coloured arrows on a plastic pad in a set sequence based on the music's rhythm.

"It's good for fitness," Ted Wada said of a game that's been used as a weapon in the U.S. war on childhood obesity, with schools in several states adding it to their physical education curriculum.

"I played for diet, and Ryota was so curious about why I enjoyed so much playing the game. He started to play when he was 3, and he wasn't any good. But I can't compete with him now. It brings him so much extra enjoyment. And it can help his development."

"Just pressing buttons and killing bodies may not be good for kids," said Ted Wada, who was a video game programmer in Japan, working for Konami, the company that created Dance Dance Revolution. (Wada is now a technology executive for the U.S. subsidiary of Noritsu, a Japanese manufacturer of photo-processing machines.)